Govt. allocates $100,000 in aid to violence-stricken Iraqi Yazidis

August 21, 2014 - 14:15 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - The government of Armenia ruled to allocate $100,000 in aid to violence-stricken Iraqi Yazidis. As Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan stated at the cabinet meeting, Yerevan keeps focus on the problems of Iraqi Yazidis, with specific assignments for the outreach given by the President and Prime Minister.

The aid will be delivered through the assistance of the UN organizations, with relevant agreements reached, Armenia Today quoted the official as saying.

Hundreds and possibly thousands of Yazidis are believed to have been killed by militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS) since the fall of Sinjar, the main Yazidi-populated town in the country’s north. Tens of thousands of Sinjar residents fled the town after being told to convert to Islam or face death. Most of them still remain trapped on a nearby barren mountain, facing starvation.

Iraq is home to at least 600,000 Yazidis. Most of them live in the northern province of Shangal, which has seen a major ISIS onslaught in recent weeks. About half a million Yazidis became refugees, fleeing their homes and moving to neighboring countries.

Some 50,000 Yazidis live in Armenia at present, making them the country’s single largest ethnic and religious minority. Scores of them have staged protests in front of the main government building in Yerevan, as well as foreign diplomatic missions, including the Iraqi and the U.S. embassies, in recent days.